Dream Knives Glitter
by orangepenguin
Summary: The Little Mermaid, told like Anderson would have wanted. POV, the mermaid, from the future looking back.
1. The End of the Beginning

**Dream Knives Glitter**

**Chapter 1: The End of the Beginning: The Story Starts**

She stood over him. The glittering knife in her hand matchingthe tears that fell on his sleeping face. Him with that other, that golden wench (all too golden, all too beautiful.) But this is where the story ends, with this contradiction. It would be unfair to not explain how this scene was reached. But then, you've heard the story before.

Perhaps you are thinking that you doubt it (how cynical are youth, a tear for you) that this is a story you would not be interested in. Or worse, you are thinking of all the stories you have heard that ended just this way and are trying to discern which one it is. No matter, I shall relate it, and you shall hear, be it for the first time or the hundredth. But if you'll listen—that is up to you. (I shed no tears over this. Not now.)

The story begins with a fire on a ship. Not (yes, I hear you scoffing) the type of ship you have now, all steel and paint and no emotion, no lust for the sea and adventure. No, it was the ship of another world. A world you no longer believe existed. A wooden ship, yes, with oil lamps. (I know it is, in essence, just putting fire with kindling. Do notlaugh at the mistakes of my world and I will notlaugh at the mistakes of yours—however tempting.) The wind blew hard, the lamp tipped over, and that ship began to burn, far from any coast that could have saved its passengers. For there were many men aboard this vessel, and many lives would be lost that night. But for the girl of water there was only one man, for all her life there was but one beautiful man. But I digress.

She was a girl of an order that you do not believe in (how easy your expressions are to read) with a tail instead of legs and gills like the sea creatures as well as lungs as it is on land. You see, from her birth she was in conflict, just from how she was made—but again, I digress.

She saw the man, the beautiful man, already sinking down into her world, already the will to fight having drained from his body, already with the expression of serenity that only those who have accepted their fate can attain. It was with that peaceful expression on his face that she rescued him from death, She didn't know, then, that she would never see that expression again. Not until—well, that comes later. At the time, she thought that look of perfect contentment was for her, and she spent all her strength trying to preserve it, dragging him over her shoulder to a distant shore. (Your expression, so easy to read, suggests you don't believe it. Someday though, you too will be in love.)

She left him on the sandy beach and stole away to the water, waiting till a girl, golden and innocent, wandered along the beach, singing, and found him lying there. Then she flitted back to her home vowing to see him again, whatever the cost. (She didn't know how high such costs can rise.)

**A/N: How was that for a beginning? Let me know.**

**OP**


	2. A Venture

**Dream Knives Glitter**

**Chapter 2: A Venture**

The girl of water went to a worker of miracles, a peddler of hopes, a sea witch. She went, singing a song of love and getting everything you could ever want in the world, while thinking that her voice was far better than that of the golden girl on the beach. Clearly the sea witch agreed, because the cost of the requested spell was to have the water child's tongue cut out. (I still fail to see the usefulness of this to either party.)

The parameters were simple: take the potion andrecieve human legs. But the only way to keep them would be to make the man fall in love with her. On sunrise the morning after his wedding to someone else, she would simply dissolve into foam on the sea. If he loved her, then she would be granted an immortal soul and a chance to live on after death, as humans have. Mermaids only have thethree hundredyears of life they are given, before turning to foam on the sea and losing consciousness forever.

Confidant in her love (the young are always confidant—don't look at me that way) she agreed to have her tongue cut out by a knife. A long, glittering knife. Before the deed was done, the witch warned her—with every step she took it would be as if such knives were stabbing the soles of her feet and shooting pains up into her beautiful human legs. The girl of water only shook her long dark hair and gestured for the witch to go ahead—so confidant was she.

A few days later, she was not so confidant. She had found the man, found he was a rich man, and taken up residence in his palace by the sea. Of course, as she couldn't speak, he didn't know her name, just called her "Pet" and patted her on the head, allowing her to sleep on a floor cushion at the foot of his bed.

He came to love her, in a way, over the months of her excruciating pain that they were together. He would whisper to her his dearest wishes and desires. But she both loved and hated this, for they were all of the golden one who he thought had rescued him. She had no way to tell him that truth, she could only smile and gently touch his cheek. (You think this is silly. But you have never been in love, have you, young one?)

**A/N: Well, response is appreciated.**

**xoxo**

**OP**


	3. Torture

**Dream Knives Glitter**

**Chapter 3: Torture**

The girl who was of water—the "Pet" was unhappy. Her beautiful man didn't see who she was, didn't understand. Still, she was exhilarated to just be in his presence. She thought of her sisters, sometimes, but their memory faded in comparison to his smile. She was with him always, even (oh fateful day) when he met the golden one again on a busy market street and, kneeling in the gutter, professed his undying love for her.

The water child watched in horror, as she replied (in the voice, not half as sweet as "Pet" knew hers had been) that she loved him too, with all her heart, now and forever. The former mergirl stood there, watching them kiss, and the peasants cheer, and feeling that the pain in her feet wasn't half as bad as the dull ache that pounded through her entire body at just seeing them together.

She watched the two happy humans, and thought of her father and sisters and swimming and singing and everything she had given up. All for him. And she saw him there, with her, that girl who he thought had saved him, what she alone had done. She watched them, and could not do anything, could not say anything, could only watch. And in that moment, she felt her all too human heart break. (Oh, you think that she deserved what she got for being so thoughtless? Children, so carefree and heartless. I'll say it again, _you have never been in love.)_

The man and the golden one decided that they were so in love they must get married that very day. The girl with the broken heart had to smile and dress in a beautiful sea green gown that reminded her of her past, her mistakes (as if she needed to be reminded) and how is was all for him. At the wedding she danced for everyone, her gown twirling and swirling like the sea itself. Her dancing was airy and light, like angels of the sea, like no human could ever manage.

Her feet and ankles, and entire legs were shot through with pain the entire time that was like being stabbed with a knife over and over. But the girl with the broken heart barely noticed them. And then, when the man pulled her aside and patted her on the head, for the first time in her life, she cried.Actual salty tears. (Mermaids can't cry, but the girl was all too human now, and you, my young friends, are finally starting to listen properly.)

**A/N- Well, I think there's only enough story left for one more chapter. This has been _wicked_ fun.**

**xoxo**

**OP**


	4. Like Dying

**Dream Knives Glitter**

**Chapter 4: Like Dying**

**A/N: Final chapter, you guys!**

Now the girl with the tears heard voices calling to her, calling her by a name she had almost forgotten, But it was her sisters in the water! (Of course the man had his wedding on a ship, it was because of a shipwreck he met his golden one.) The sisters looked different from what the girl remembered, All their beautiful swirling hair was gone. All of it.

The girl kept crying, now at the sight of their fuzzy, shorn heads, even as the sisters handed her a glittering knife and said that they had traded it for their hair with the sea witch. If she stabbed the man she loved, she could turn back into a mermaid and be with them again. Live out the rest of her three hundred years.

The girl looked at the knife and how it glittered in the moonlight, She eyed the door of the cabin the man and his golden one had slipped into right after the party. She walked numbly towards the bedroom.

The girl with the knife listened at the door and heard no noises. They had must have fallen asleep, tired from their long day. She opened the door to find them, in states of half undress, entangled in each other. The girl stood over them, and cried more than ever. She saw, on his face, that look of peace and serenity she had been convinced was just for her. But it wasn't. It was for the golden one who lay there with him. Too golden, too perfect.

(You child, think she is going to stab him, I can see it in your eyes. You want vengeance. What kind of story doesn't have a villain to be punished? To you, he is nothing but the villain now.)

But the girl looked at him, at them, and she loved him. She loved him with an intensity that even her broken human heart couldn't contain. It was a fire inside her. She who had been of waterbut a few months ago.

With one last look, one last tear, she left the man she loved and closed the door behind her. She walked to the edge of the ship, just as the sun began to rise, and then turned into nothing but foam on the sea. (You are indignant, and rightly so. It isn't fair. It doesn't make a good story. It is too human, isn't it? It makes you care too much. Essentially, the story ends here, but there is a little bit left. Hardly worth anything but...)

A few seconds after she dissolved into oblivion, the girl was shocked into consciousness; she was floating up, still existing! She was riding the wind up into the clouds—she was the wind in the clouds. Dizzy, she blew around, not understanding, until she heard the other winds talking to her. They were saying she had become too human to die like mermaids do when their time is up—as foam on the sea. The wind that was the girl became Arctic cold, and howled a gust to knock someone off their feet. She had forgotten, but now she remembered all of it. (You thought she was going to be happy now, didn't you? You thought she was going to be a wind child, free and happy. Have I taught you nothing? Haven't you been listening?)

The winds said she had a chance now, however, to die like a human without having someone fall in love with her, She just had to blow all around the world, as they did, forthree hundredyears. She was to blow into children's windows at night and bring them dreams.

But... if she ever encountered a child who was disbelieving, she would cry, and with every tear would be sentenced to another year of this. (Oh, you were sure there was a moral, you knew that was coming. A tear. child, what are you doing to me? Never mind. When the sun rises, I'll just blow away, and if you remember the mergirl's story at all it will be as faint and distant as a dream. Another tear. But this one, not for you.)

**A/N: THE END! I'll miss you,**

**orangepenguin.**


End file.
